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- Anti-Iranian IslamoFascist Mafia Regime In Iran Rejects U.S. Aid Offer [IRIB]
- Officals: The population of around 200,000 people. About 330 villages suffered 40 to 100 percent damage
- Around 500 people from villages under the city of Brujerd's jurisdiction protested in front of the city's governor office, demanding blankets, tents and food, state news agency IRNA reported.
- local Red Crescent: we were not able to furnish all those affected by the quake with the needed tents
- "I wish I were killed with my sheep and cows,"
- Officals: 15,000 homes were affected

Over past 27 years, the clerical regime supported a racketeering scheme that it has been used to build poorly designed and badly constructed houses and shops, subsequently issuing fatwas (religious opinions) that canceled previous orders of the Shah's government, which had banned such development in the most earthquake-prone cities of Iran.
Islamofascist regime corruption, mismanagement of Iranian Oil money and spending money for Hamas, Hizbollah ...... resulted in poor housing condition that can not resist 4.7-magnitude .....

Destruction caused in Khaleq Ali village, following a powerful earthquake which struck western Iran. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice offered US humanitarian aid to the victims of the earthquake in Iran, during a visit to England(AFP/Atta Kenare)

“Today, we successfully tested a new-generation missile capable of striking several targets simultaneously”, Brigadier General Hossein Salami, who commands the IRGC Air Force, told state television on Friday.

The new domestically-produced missile can “hide from radars” and “evade anti-missile missiles”, Salami said.

President Bush offered assistance Friday to earthquake victims in Iran, saying the United States cares about the suffering of the Iranian people even though there are major differences with Tehran about its nuclear program.

The U.S. military provided aid after a devastating quake in southern Iran in 2003. Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said in Washington there has been no indication of an Iranian request for U.S. military aid, and that none was being provided at this point.

"We, obviously, have our differences with the Iranian government, but we do care about the suffering of Iranian people," Bush said at a news conference with the leaders of Mexico and Canada.

Three strong earthquakes and several aftershocks struck near two industrial centers about 210 miles southwest of Tehran. Officials said at least 66 people were killed and 1,200 others were injured.

Bush emphasized opposition to Iran's nuclear program and said the world was united with Washington.

"There is common agreement that the Iranians should not have a nuclear weapon, the capacity to make a nuclear weapon or the knowledge to make a nuclear weapon," the president said.

"And the reason there's common agreement is because the Iranian government with such a weapon as it's now constituted would pose a serious threat to world security," Bush added.

He declined to say whether the United States would seek sanctions against Iran. Bush did note that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in Europe trying to build a consensus with allies on the next steps.

BLACKBURN, England (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice offered US humanitarian aid to the victims of the earthquake in Iran, during a visit to England.

"The United States is always prepared to help with humanitarian assistance anywhere in the world when these kinds of difficulties are faced by a population," Rice told reporters just outside the northwestern city of Blackburn.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported a 5.7-magnitude quake shortly before 5 a.m., followed by a 4.7-magnitude aftershock about 15 minutes later.

The quakes were centered near Boroujerd and Doroud, two industrial centers about 210 miles southwest of Tehran, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

The regional head of emergency response, Ali Barani, said about 200 villages were damaged, some flattened. Barani said hospitals in Doroud and Boroujerd were filled to capacity.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, visiting northern England, expressed her "deep sympathy" to the Iranians and offered assistance. The U.S. military provided aid after a devastating quake in southern Iran in 2003.

Tehran, Iran, Feb. 03 – Iran Focus has obtained exclusive information from a reliable source in Iran throwing light on sleaze at the senior echelons of officialdom in the Islamic Republic.

The source has provided Iran Focus with a list of senior officials of the clerical regime and the personal fortune each one has amassed. Most of these officials have risen from lower middle class backgrounds to fabulous wealth gathered through corruption and embezzlement.

At eighth place is Ali Jannati, son of powerful cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati and a senior official in Iran’s Interior Ministry. The Jannati family’s private wealth is estimated at two trillion Rials, the equivenlt of $220 million. Senior cleric Ahmad Jannati is the head of the powerful Guardians Council and a close advisor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

At seventh place is Ayatollah Abolghassem Khazali, former member of the Guardians Council. The powerful council whose members are handpicked by the Supreme Leader is comprised of six clerics and six senior judges and has the power to veto any Majlis legislation. Khazali’s estimated wealth is 2.5 trillion Rials, the equivalent of $275 million, coming mostly from sea trading, paper imports, and book sales.

At sixth place is Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, Iran’s former Judiciary Chief and another member of the Guardians Council. The senior cleric’s estimated wealth stands at three trillion Rials, the equivalent of $330 million.

At fifth place is Iraqi-born Ayatollah Mohammad-Ali Taskhiri, who for years headed the Islamic Culture and Communications Organisation (ICCO). Since 1995, the ICCO has been active in exporting fundamentalism and propaganda directed against Iranian dissidents outside of Iran. Khamenei himself is in charge of the organisation’s policymaking council and its meetings are held at his residence. Adding up the lands in his name and his cash flow, Taskhiri’s personal wealth is above three trillion Rials, the equivalent of $330 million.

Number four in Iran’s rich list is Ayatollah Ali Meshkini, Speaker of the Assembly of Experts, the exclusively clerical body that designates the country’s Supreme Leader. In a country where many of the theocracy’s ruling elite are in-laws, Meshkini is father in law to Mohammad Reyshahri, the Islamic Republic’s first Minister of Intelligence and Security. Meshkini’s personal wealth, coming in from mostly sugar trade and the industrial-scale printers, is well above three trillion Rials, the equivalent of $330 million.

Well ahead at third place is the former Commandant of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Mohsen Rezai. Rezai, a close aide to former President Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, has amassed a personal wealth of six trillion Rials, or $660 million. While at the top of the IRGC, Rezai was known by many titles ranging from Major General to “darsadgir General” (literally, the general that takes commissions).

Number two on the list of officials who have become notoriously rich is Ayatollah Vaez Tabasi, known widely as the Sultan of Khorassan. Vaez Tabasi and his children have amassed an estimated fortune of seven trillion Rials, or $770 million. Their income primarily comes from sugar trade and the sale of real estate in Iran’s central Qods province.

At the top slot comes, unsurprisingly to Iran observers, Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, whose family rules over a vast financial and business empire. From the pistachio farms of his hometown Rafsanjan to huge oil trading companies, the ruling theocracy’s former president has used his power and influence to expand his wealth. Conservative estimates put his fortune at well beyond the 10 trillion Rial mark, the equivalent of $1.1 billion.

Most of the powerful cleric’s enormous wealth is vested in the hands of his sons and daughters, as well as other close relatives such as his brothers, nephews, and bother-in-laws, and son-in-laws. One of his villas was sold in 2004 for roughly 29 billion Rials. His brother, Mohammad Hashemi, the former chief of the state broadcasting corporation, owns the company Taha, which imports industrial-scale printers.

The image of “rich ayatollahs driving around in bullet-proof Mercedes” has become the butt of many jokes and the cause of much resentment in a country where, according to World Bank figures, the per capital income has fallen to a fifth of its 1970s value. Despite Iran’s huge export revenues and unexpected surpluses from the giant oil market jumps in recent months and years, the country’s budget is constantly in a state of flux showing no signs that it will sustain any time soon, inflation is at 16 percent and rising, and the economic growth rate is projected to fall throughout 2006.

DariushS. wrote:

Iran: Bam Earthquake GenocideSIGN IMPORTANT PLEA FOR JUSTICE!(Bam 'Quake Genocide)January 12, 2004by Dariush ShiraziNote: Please sign corresponding petition by clicking here!Note: Please sign corresponding petition by clicking here!
His eyes struggle to open though they are flooded by darkness. Where am I? Terror and pain consume the boy as his 4 year old chest struggles for each breath of air. Layers of crumbled earth and stone wrap the young boy so tightly that his twisted body can only muster a few tears and a whimper so faint that it is impossible to hear. He is confused, scared and cold. What has happened? He struggles for each breath, unaware that he isn't alone under the fallen city, unaware that thousands of others are still breathing, still crying, and still waiting... But, waiting for what?

Another disaster had hit Iran, a country plagued by decades of sadness, despair and dwindling hope. In this moment of Iranian tragedy, the people of the world answered almost immediately and in a most remarkably apolitical manner. Some countries sent tents; others sent food, medical supplies, and water. The United States offered support in the form of tents, medical supplies, medical personnel, food, and a wealth of additional amenities and support. Interestingly, the US and Israel, two countries hated and labeled by the Mullahs as "Satans", made some of the most noble offerings. Their offers transcended politics for the sake of humanity, answering the cry of one human with the hand of another. But, as the world mobilized rescue teams and prepared other offerings to the Iranian people, the murderous regime of clerics in Tehran had already begun to strategize about ways in which they could use this disaster to their own advantage. How would they protect themselves against possible uprisings against their regime? How would they manage this crisis for the sake of their longevity, while neglecting to consider the time-sensitive nature of this disaster and the thousands still alive and buried under the rubble of Bam? Would they accept aid from the United States? Yes, they decided they would have to accept some aid from the "Great Satan".

The clerics decided it would be in the regime's strategic best interest to accept this offer. Turning away American aid would not only politicize a humanitarian issue, but could also result in increased internal anger and hatred toward the regime by Iranians who are on the verge of overthrowing the unelected clerics. Not to mention that turning down American aid would perhaps result in condemnation from other world governments, who, blinded by the golden oil that flows into their countries on a daily basis, would rather continue aiding and abetting these killers, while the Iranian people suffer. Israel, who almost immediately had rescue teams ready for deployment, and could have had their advanced teams in Bam within hours was refused by the clerical regime, not to mention professional American search and rescue teams based in Los Angeles who were also denied entry. While Bam residents were struggling to hold onto their lives, the Islamic regime was playing the deadliest game of politics by turning away the most important offers of aid... aid that could have saved thousands.

Earthquakes in this part of the world are by no means anomalies, as there are small tremors in Iran almost daily. In light of Iran's earthquake history, one would think that only a small percentage of the billions upon billions of dollars that continue to flow from the hands of various European nations into the hands of the clerical regime would be sufficient to fund a vast search and rescue infrastructure that could respond to an earthquake disaster within an hour or two of such an incident. One would think that the European foreign ministers who visited Tehran in October of last year, would at least have had some respect for the Iranian people, and could have requested that at least some of the billions of dollars, which Europeans regularly pay to the mullahs in exchange for automobile fuel, would be used to reinforce and strengthen the Iranian infrastructure. Of course, one would only think these things if and only if they were anyone but the Mullahs in Iran and the various world leaders who are employing every last ditch effort to keep their ally from being overthrown by an overwhelmingly popular democratic Iranian movement. Don't be misled, the money is put to use. This blood money is invested by the regime into each and every mechanism of suppression one could possibly imagine. The reaction time of the regime's outsourced vigilantes and mercenaries to Iranian uprisings is never more than a few minutes to an hour, though the response of the regime to thousands upon thousands of suffering Iranians was nonexistent.
Why, in 1979, did the regime support a racketeering scheme that entailed seizing large chunks of land in Bam that would be used to build poorly designed and badly constructed houses and shops, subsequently issuing fatwas (religious opinions) that canceled government orders that banned such development in the earthquake-prone city? Why did the clerical regime wait several hours and in many cases days before allowing offerings of aid to reach the victims? Why did such "leaders" who profess to speak the word of God prevent highly trained Israeli and American search and rescue teams from saving the lives of countless Iranians? Why did the regime order that tens of thousands of Iranians from various cities who had gathered tents and other amenities for their compatriots in Bam be turned away? Why do many world governments continue to shut their eyes to all the suffering and continue supplying indirect aid to this tyranny?

This was not simply a disaster caused by a tragic earthquake. This was genocide.

As the days passed, some Iranians were pulled alive from the ruins, not by the rescue teams who had been denied entry, but by the few family members who had survived. They suffered together. The little ones held on the longest, not knowing where they were, what had happened, or why. Soon, the suffocating dust and pressure from all around became too much to withstand. One by one the lights under Bam went out. Now even the youngest of Iranians have experienced the wrath of a regime that has murdered, tortured and raped hundreds of thousands of innocents.

In the name of all who have suffered, died and currently endure in the struggle for freedom, now is the time to rise and be most vigilant. From Tehran, to Paris, to Los Angeles and back, let our voices be heard and let there be little mercy shown to the tyrants who have only known the path of death and destruction. Demand that your government answer the cries of the Iranian people immediately. Not by supporting the so-called "reformers" who are nothing more than a regime-sponsored facade, meant to create the perception of bipolarity and the existence of some option other than regime-change. Demand that the clerical regime hold a free-referendum so that the Iranian people may freely choose the fate of the butchers. The war on terror goes on and will never be won until such regimes are no more.

Victory is near!

Dariush Shirazi

If you support the Iranian people in their struggle to be free and demand that the regime in Iran be investigated for crimes against humanity as well as genocide in Bam, then please sign the following petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/bamquake/petition.html

Last edited by cyrus on Sat Apr 01, 2006 12:28 pm; edited 27 times in total

PREVIOUS | NEXTAn Iranian man searches through the ruins of his quake-devastated home in Baba Pashman village, 400km (248 miles) south west of Tehran March 31, 2006. A strong earthquake hit Iran on Friday, killing at least 66 people and devastating villages, a provincial official said.
REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl PREVIOUS | NEXTAn Iranian man searches through the ruins of his quake-devastated home in Baba Pashman village, 400km (248 miles) south west of Tehran March 31, 2006. A strong earthquake hit Iran on Friday, killing at least 66 people and devastating villages, a provincial official said.
REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl PREVIOUS | NEXTAn Iranian woman walks through the ruins of her quake-devastated home in Baba Pashman village, 400km (248 miles) south west of Tehran March 31, 2006. A strong earthquake hit Iran on Friday, killing at least 66 people and devastating villages, a provincial official said.
REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl PREVIOUS | NEXTIranian women mourn for victims of the earthquake in Baba Pashman village, 400km (248 miles) south west of Tehran, Iran March 31, 2006. A strong earthquake hit Iran on Friday, killing at least 66 people and devastating villages, a provincial official said.
REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl Background TIPSHEET: Aid experts debunk post-disaster myths

FACTBOX: Deadliest earthquakes of the past 100 years

MORE
(Updates death toll)

By Alireza Ronaghi

GARAJ, Iran, March 31 (Reuters) - A strong earthquake hit western Iran on Friday, killing at least 70 people and devastating villages, a provincial official said.

More than 1,200 people were injured in an area around the cities of Doroud and Boroujerd in the province of Lorestan, said Ali Barani, head of the provincial emergency team for disasters.

A nuclear threat to the rest of the world, Iran is robbing its own people of prosperity. But the men at the top are getting extremely rich. It's rumble time in Tehran. At dozens of intersections in the capital of Iran thousands of students are protesting on a recent Friday around midnight, as they do nearly every night, chanting pro-democracy slogans and lighting bonfires on street corners. Residents of the surrounding middle-class neighborhoods converge in their cars, honking their horns in raucous support.

Suddenly there's thunder in the air. A gang of 30 motorcyclists, brandishing iron bars and clubs as big as baseball bats, roars through the stalled traffic. They glare at the drivers, yell threats, thump cars. Burly and bearded, the bikers yank two men from their auto and pummel them. Most protesters scatter. Uniformed policemen watch impassively as the thugs beat the last stragglers.

These Hell's Angels are part of the Hezbollah militia, recruited mostly from the countryside. Iran's ruling mullahs roll them out whenever they need to intimidate their opponents. The Islamic Republic is a strange dictatorship. As it moves to repress growing opposition to clerical rule, the regime relies not on soldiers or uniformed police (many of whom sympathize with the protesters) but on the bullies of Hezbollah and the equally thuggish Revolutionary Guards. The powers that be claim to derive legitimacy from Allah but remain on top with gangsterlike methods of intimidation, violence and murder.

Who controls today's Iran? Certainly not Mohammad Khatami, the twice-elected moderate president, or the reformist parliament. Not even the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a stridently anti-American but unremarkable cleric plucked from the religious ranks 14 years ago to fill the shoes of his giant predecessor, Ayatollah Khomeini, is fully in control. The real power is a handful of clerics and their associates who call the shots behind the curtain and have gotten very rich in the process.

The economy bears more than a little resemblance to the crony capitalism that sprouted from the wreck of the Soviet Union. The 1979 revolution expropriated the assets of foreign investors and the nation's wealthiest families; oil had long been nationalized, but the mullahs seized virtually everything else of value--banks, hotels, car and chemical companies, makers of drugs and consumer goods. What distinguishes Iran is that many of these assets were given to Islamic charitable foundations, controlled by the clerics. According to businessmen and former foundation executives, the charities now serve as slush funds for the mullahs and their supporters.

Iran has other lethal secrets besides its nuclear program, now the subject of prying international eyes. Dozens of interviews with businessmen, merchants, economists and former ministers and other top government officials reveal a picture of a dictatorship run by a shadow government that--the U.S. State Department suspects--finances terrorist groups abroad through a shadow foreign policy. Its economy is dominated by shadow business empires and its power is protected by a shadow army of enforcers.

Ironically, the man most adept at manipulating this hidden power structure is one of Iran's best-known characters--Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who has been named an ayatollah, or religious leader. He was the speaker of parliament and Khomeini's right-hand man in the 1980s, president of Iran from 1989 to 1997 and is now chairman of the powerful Expediency Council, which resolves disputes between the clerical establishment and parliament. Rafsanjani has more or less run the Islamic Republic for the past 24 years.

He played it smart, aligning himself in the 1960s with factions led by Ayatollah Khomeini, then becoming the go-to guy after the revolution. A hard-liner ideologically, Rafsanjani nonetheless has a pragmatic streak. He convinced Khomeini to end the Iran-Iraq war and broke Iran's international isolation by establishing trade relations with the Soviet Union, China, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. In the 1990s he restarted Iran's nuclear program. He is also the father of Iran's "privatization" program. During his presidency the stock market was revived, some government companies were sold to insiders, foreign trade was liberalized and the oil sector was opened up to private companies. Most of the good properties and contracts, say dissident members of Iran's Chamber of Commerce, ended up in the hands of mullahs, their associates and, not least, Rafsanjani's own family, who rose from modest origins as small-scale pistachio farmers.

"They were not rich people, so they worked hard and always tried to help their relatives get ahead," remembers Reza, a historian who declines to use his last name and who studied with one of Rafsanjani's brothers at Tehran University in the early 1970s. "When they were in university, two brothers earned money on the side tutoring theological students and preparing their exam papers."

Discontent Unveiled

Disaffected, denied opportunity and just plain bored, Iran's youth have taken their frustrations with the clerics' regime to the streets.

The 1979 revolution transformed the Rafsanjani clan into commercial pashas. One brother headed the country's largest copper mine; another took control of the state-owned TV network; a brother-in-law became governor of Kerman province, while a cousin runs an outfit that dominates Iran's $400 million pistachio export business; a nephew and one of Rafsanjani's sons took key positions in the Ministry of Oil; another son heads the Tehran Metro construction project (an estimated $700 million spent so far). Today, operating through various foundations and front companies, the family is also believed to control one of Iran's biggest oil engineering companies, a plant assembling Daewoo automobiles, and Iran's best private airline (though the Rafsanjanis insist they do not own these assets).

None of this sits well with the populace, whose per capita income is $1,800 a year. The gossip on the street, going well beyond the observable facts, has the Rafsanjanis stashing billions of dollars in bank accounts in Switzerland and Luxembourg; controlling huge swaths of waterfront in Iran's free economic zones on the Persian Gulf; and owning whole vacation resorts on the idyllic beaches of Dubai, Goa and Thailand.

But not much of the criticism makes its way into print. One journalist who dared to investigate Rafsanjani's secret dealings and his alleged role in extrajudicial killings of dissidents is now languishing in jail. He's lucky. Iranian politics can be deadly. Five years ago Tehran was rocked by murders of journalists and anticorruption activists; some were beheaded, others mutilated.

Some of the family's wealth is out there for all to see. Rafsanjani's youngest son, Yaser, owns a 30-acre horse farm in the super-fashionable Lavasan neighborhood of north Tehran, where land goes for over $4 million an acre. Just where did Yaser get his money? A Belgian-educated businessman, he runs a large export-import firm that includes baby food, bottled water and industrial machinery.

Until a few years ago the simplest way to get rich quick was through foreign-currency trades. Easy, if you could get greenbacks at the subsidized import rate of 1,750 rials to the dollar and resell them at the market rate of 8,000 to the dollar. You needed only the right connections for an import license. "I estimate that, over a period of ten years, Iran lost $3 billion to $5 billion annually from this kind of exchange-rate fraud," says Saeed Laylaz, an economist, now with Iran's biggest carmaker. "And the lion's share of that went to about 50 families."

One of the families benefiting from the foreign trade system was the Asgaroladis, an old Jewish clan of bazaar traders, who converted to Islam several generations ago. Asadollah Asgaroladi exports pistachios, cumin, dried fruit, shrimp and caviar, and imports sugar and home appliances; his fortune is estimated by Iranian bankers to be some $400 million. Asgaroladi had a little help from his older brother, Habibollah, who, as minister of commerce in the 1980s, was in charge of distributing lucrative foreign-trade licenses. (He was also a counterparty to commodities trader and then-fugitive Marc Rich, who helped Iran bypass U.S.-backed sanctions.)

The other side of Iran's economy belongs to the Islamic foundations, which account for 10% to 20% of the nation's GDP--$115 billion last year. Known as bonyads, the best-known of these outfits were established from seized property and enterprises by order of Ayatollah Khomeini in the first weeks of his regime. Their mission was to redistribute to the impoverished masses the "illegitimate" wealth accumulated before the revolution by "apostates" and "blood-sucking capitalists." And, for a decade or so, the foundations shelled out money to build low-income housing and health clinics. But since Khomeini's death in 1989 they have increasingly forsaken their social welfare functions for straightforward commercial activities.

Until recently they were exempt from taxes, import duties and most government regulation. They had access to subsidized foreign currency and low-interest loans from state-owned banks. And they were not accountable to the Central Bank, the Ministry of Finance or any other government institution. Formally, they are under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Leader; effectively, they operate without any oversight at all, answerable only to Allah.

According to Shiite Muslim tradition, devout businessmen are expected to donate 20% of profits to their local mosques, which use the money to help the poor. By contrast, many bonyads seem like straightforward rackets, extorting money from entrepreneurs. Besides the biggest national outfits, almost every Iranian town has its own bonyad, affiliated with local mullahs. "Many small businessmen complain that as soon as you start to make some money, the leading mullah will come to you and ask for a contribution to his local charity," says an opposition economist, who declines to give his name. "If you refuse, you will be accused of not being a good Muslim. Some witnesses will turn up to testify that they heard you insult the Prophet Mohammad, and you will be thrown in jail." The Cosa Nostra meets fundamentalism.

Other charities resemble multinational conglomerates. The Mostazafan & Jambazan Foundation (Foundation for the Oppressed and War Invalids) is the second-largest commercial enterprise in the country, behind the state-owned National Iranian Oil Co. Until recently it was run by a man named Mohsen Rafiqdoost. The son of a vegetable-and-fruit merchant at the Tehran bazaar, Rafiqdoost got his big break in 1979, when he was chosen to drive Ayatollah Khomeini from the airport after his triumphal return from exile in Paris.

Khomeini made him Minister of the Revolutionary Guards to quash internal dissent and smuggle in weapons for the Iran-Iraq war. In 1989, when Rafsanjani became president, Rafiqdoost gained control of the Mostazafan Foundation, which employs up to 400,000 workers and has assets that in all probability exceed $10 billion. Among its holdings: the former Hyatt and Hilton hotels in Tehran; the highly successful Zam-Zam soft drink company (once Pepsi); an international shipping line; companies producing oil products and cement; swaths of farmland and urban real estate.

Theoretically the Mostazafan Foundation is a social welfare organization. By 1996 it began taking government funds to cover welfare disbursements; soon it plans to spin off its social responsibilities altogether, leaving behind a purely commercial conglomerate owned by--whom? That is not clear. Why does this foundation exist? "I don't know--ask Mr. Rafiqdoost," says Abbas Maleki, a foreign policy adviser to Ayatollah Rafsanjani.

A picture emerges from one Iranian businessman who used to handle the foreign trade deals for one of the big foundations. Organizations like the Mostazafan serve as giant cash boxes, he says, to pay off supporters of the mullahs, whether they're thousands of peasants bused in to attend religious demonstrations in Tehran or Hezbollah thugs who beat up students. And, not least, the foundations serve as cash cows for their managers.

"It usually works like this," explains this businessman. "Some foreigner comes in, proposes a deal to the foundation head. The big boss says: ‘Fine. I agree. Work out the details with my administrator.' So the foreigner goes to see the administrator, who tells him: ‘You know that we have two economies here--official and unofficial. You have to be part of the unofficial economy if you want to be successful. So, you have to deposit the following amount into the following bank account abroad and then the deal will go forward.'"

Today Rafiqdoost heads up the Noor Foundation, which owns apartment blocks and makes an estimated $200 million importing pharmaceuticals, sugar and construction materials. He is quick to downplay his personal wealth. "I am just a normal person, with normal wealth," he says. Then, striking a Napoleonic pose, he adds: "But if Islam is threatened, I will become big again."

Implication: that he has access to a secret reservoir of money that can be tapped when the need arises. That may have been what Ayatollah Rafsanjani had in mind when he declared recently that the Islamic Republic needed to keep large funds in reserve. But who is to determine when Islam is in danger?

As minister of the Revolutionary Guards in the 1980s, Rafiqdoost played a key role in sponsoring Hezbollah in Lebanon--which kidnapped foreigners, hijacked airplanes, set off car bombs, trafficked in heroin and pioneered the use of suicide bombers. According to Gregory Sullivan, spokesman for the Near Eastern Affairs Bureau at the U.S. State Department, the foundations are the perfect vehicles to carry out Iran's shadow foreign policy. (One of them offered the $2.8 million bounty to anyone who carried out Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa to kill British author Salman Rushdie.) Whenever suspicion of complicity in a terrorist incident--in Saudi Arabia, Israel, Argentina--turns to Iran, the Tehran government has denied involvement. State Department officials suspect that such operations may be sponsored by one of the foundations and semiautonomous units of the Revolutionary Guards. If anyone in Iran is aiding al Qaeda, that may be the best place to look.

Iran's foundations are a law unto themselves. The largest "charity" (at least in terms of real estate holdings) is the centuries-old Razavi Foundation, charged with caring for Iran's most revered shrine--the tomb of Reza, the Eighth Shiite Imam, in the northern city of Mashhad. It is run by one of Iran's leading hard-line mullahs, Ayatollah Vaez-Tabasi, who prefers to stay out of the public eye but emerges occasionally to urge death to apostates and other opponents of the clerical regime.

The Razavi Foundation owns vast tracts of urban real estate all across Iran, as well as hotels, factories, farms and quarries. Its assets are impossible to value with any precision, since the foundation has never released an inventory of its holdings, but Iranian economists speak of a net asset value of $15 billion or more. The foundation also receives generous contributions from the millions of pilgrims who visit the Mashhad shrine each year.

What happens to annual revenues estimated in the hundreds of millions--perhaps billions--of dollars? Not all of it goes to cover the maintenance costs of mosques, cemeteries, religious schools and libraries. Over the past decade the foundation has bought new businesses and properties, established investment banks (together with investors from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates), funded real estate projects and financed big foreign trade deals.

The driving force behind the commercialization of the Razavi Foundation is Ayatollah Tabasi's son, Naser, who was put in charge of the Sarakhs Free Trade Zone, on the border with the former Soviet republic of Turkmenistan. In the 1990s the foundation poured hundreds of millions of dollars into this project, funding a rail link between Iran and Turkmenistan, new highways, an international airport, a hotel and office buildings. It even paid $2.3 million to a Swiss firm to erect a huge tent for the ceremonies inaugurating the Iran-Turkmenistan rail link.

Then it all went wrong. In July 2001 Naser Tabasi was dismissed as director of the Free Trade Zone. Two months later he was arrested and charged with fraud in connection with a Dubai-based company called Al-Makasib. The details of the case remain murky, but four months ago the General Court of Tehran concluded that Naser Tabasi had not known that he was breaking the law and acquitted him.

Few receive even a slap on the wrist. A rare exception: Hard-line cleric Hadi Ghaffari, who specialized in seizing expropriated properties, like Star Stockings (maker of sexy lingerie), and reselling them at a nice profit. He was convicted of embezzlement in the early 1990s.

Iran's most distinguished senior clerics are disgusted by the mullahcrats. Ayatollah Taheri, Friday prayer leader of the city of Isfahan, resigned in protest earlier this year. "When I hear that some of the privileged progeny and special people, some of whom even don cloaks and turbans, are competing amongst themselves to amass the most wealth," he said, "I am drenched with the sweat of shame."

Meanwhile the clerical elite has mismanaged the nation into senseless poverty. With 9% of the world's oil and 15% of its natural gas, Iran should be a very rich country. It has a young, educated population and a long tradition of craftsmanship and international commerce. But per capita income today is actually 7% below what it was before the revolution. Iranian economists estimate capital flight (to Dubai and other safe havens) at up to $3 billion a year.

No wonder so many students turn to the streets in protest. The dictatorship tells them what to think, what to wear, and what to eat and drink. It has also been robbing them of their future

Thousands are sleeping out in the open
Iranian authorities are rushing to provide aid for thousands of people left homeless by Friday's earthquakes in western Lorestan province.
More than 70 people were killed and about 1,200 hurt when quakes measuring up to 6.0 struck on Friday morning.

Many people chose to spend the night in the open amid fears of aftershocks.

The interior ministry said 15,000 homes had been affected. More tents and blankets were required but there was no need for foreign rescue workers.

Russia had planned to send a plane with rescuers on Saturday but instead Moscow said it would now simply provide blankets and other humanitarian aid.

Animals

Most of the parks in the provincial capital, Khoramabad, and the city of Boroujerd were filled with people sleeping out.

I lost all my livelihood, I had 140 sheep and cows, now I am left with a destroyed farm and only 50 animals

Hossein Mousivand,
farmer

In pictures: Iran earthquake

Head of the local Red Crescent, Mohammad Ali Drekavandi, said: "Unfortunately we were not able to furnish all those affected by the quake with the needed tents."

Local officials say more than 300 villagers have been affected, suffering 40%-100% damage.

Bereaved women covered their heads with mud and scratched their cheeks in traditional grieving ceremonies.

The head of Lorestan's Medical University, Qodratollah Sams Khoramabadi, said: "Since most of the area affected is villages with animal stables, we are going to bury the animals in way to halt the spread disease."

Survivor Hossein Mousivand told the AFP news agency: "I lost all my livelihood, I had 140 sheep and cows, now I am left with a destroyed farm and only 50 animals."

The US has set aside political differences with Tehran to offer humanitarian assistance to the victims of the quake.

Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns made the offer in a phone call to the Iranian ambassador to the UN, Mohammad Javad Zarif, on Friday.

Mr Zarif said the Iranian government had not yet appealed for assistance.

Experts say the earthquake is moderate in scale; in the past such tremors have killed thousands in rural areas of Iran, where houses are built with brick and often poorly constructed.

Iran straddles a major geological fault line and is regularly struck by powerful earthquakes.

More than 26,000 people died when the ancient city of Bam was levelled by an earthquake in December 2003.

In February 2005, more than 600 people died in a 6.4 magnitude quake centred in a remote area near Zarand in Iran's Kerman province.

Another powerful quake hit Kerman in November 2004, killing 400.

Last edited by cyrus on Sat Apr 01, 2006 12:16 pm; edited 1 time in total

- Anti-Iranian IslamoFascist Mafia Regime In Iran Rejects U.S. Aid Offer [IRIB]
- Officals: The population of around 200,000 people. About 330 villages suffered 40 to 100 percent damage
- Around 500 people from villages under the city of Brujerd's jurisdiction protested in front of the city's governor office, demanding blankets, tents and food, state news agency IRNA reported.
- local Red Crescent: we were not able to furnish all those affected by the quake with the needed tents
- "I wish I were killed with my sheep and cows,"
- Officals: 15,000 homes were affected

Iranian authorities are battling to provide shelter and aid for thousands of people left homeless by a 6.0 magnitude earthquake in the west of the country that killed 73 people. Amid fears of aftershocks, survivors of Friday's pre-dawn earthquake in the west of Lorestan province -- which also injured at least 1,265 -- spent the night in the cold open air as they awaited the distribution of relief items.

Around 500 people from villages under the city of Brujerd's jurisdiction protested in front of the city's governor office, demanding blankets, tents and food, state news agency IRNA reported.

Most of the parks in Brujerd and the provincial capital, Khoramabad were packed with people who had dragged blankets and other necessities with them in the expectation of enduring more aftershocks.

"Unfortunately we were not able to furnish all those affected by the quake with the needed tents," the head of the local Red Crescent, Mohammad Ali Drekavandi told IRNA, adding he hoped everyone would have shelter by Saturday.

Local women were seen sitting in a circle, crying as they wailed for the loss of their loved ones, covering their heads with mud, and scratching their nails into their tear-stained faces.

Such mourning ceremonies are unique to the area.

"I wish I were killed with my sheep and cows," shouted the wailing Hossein Mousivand, 60, from a village close to the city of Burjerd.

According to local officials, the areas hit most by the quakes were villages between Brujerd and Doroud, which have the population of around 200,000 people. About 330 villages suffered 40 to 100 percent damage, according to officials.

"I lost all my livelihood, I had 140 sheep and cows, now I am left with a destroyed farm and only 50 animals," Mousivand, hitting his head against the only standing pillar in his ravaged farm, told an AFP photographer.

Iranian officials have been quoted as saying by state media the search and rescue operation are over with efforts now focused on looking after survivors.

Iranian deputy interior ministry, Mohammad Baqir Zolqadr, was quoted as saying that 15,000 homes were affected in the area and they have planed to furnish all of them with tents.

"Since most of the area affected is villages with animal stables, we are going to bury the animals in way to halt the spread any disease. We are also have started the distribution of sanitary bottled water," the head of Lorestan's Medical University, Qodratollah Sams Khoramabadi, told state television.

The tremor struck at 4:47 am (0117 GMT) following two others measuring 4.7 and 5.1, Iranian television quoted the National Seismological Institute as saying.

According to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the Iranian Red Crescent has sent 100 rescue teams, or a total of around 300 people, to the affected areas.

Interior ministry public relations director Mojtaba Mir-Abdollahi told AFP hours after the quake that survivors were in urgent need of food, blankets and medical supplies, but he added that there was "no need" for international aid.
Despite acute tension over Tehran's nuclear program and neighboring Iraq, US President George W. Bush made a point of offering sympathy and assistance.

"We obviously have differences with the Iranian government but we do care about the suffering of Iranian people," he said while at a North American summit in Mexico.

Iran sits astride several major faults in the earth's crust, and is prone to frequent earthquakes, many of them devastating.

The worst quake in recent times hit Bam in the south of the country in December 2003, killing 31,000 people, about a quarter of the city's population, and destroying the city's ancient mud-built citadel.

Last edited by cyrus on Sat Apr 01, 2006 1:43 pm; edited 5 times in total

New York -- US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns in a phone call on Friday expressed his government's sympathy to the Iranian government and quake-stricken people of Lorestan for the devastating quakes which hit this western Iranian province between Thursday night and Friday morning.

In his phone conversation with Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations Mohammad-Javad Zarif on Friday, Burns voiced the US' offer of aid to quake victims that would include blankets, water and hygienic items.

Zarif thanked Burns for the offer but said the Iranian government had not yet issued an appeal for international assistance following the Lorestan quakes.

He said extensive and immediate relief and rescue operations by the Iranian government, the Islamic Republic Red Crescent Society and Non-Governmental Organizations had started in the quake-stricken areas.

The US has adopted lately a strategy of reaching out more to the Iranian people while pursuing anti-Iranian measures. It uses humanitarian disasters such as these latest quakes to hit the country to convey to the people it has a humanitarian heart in a bid to create a wedge between the people and the government.

Wanted to wish you and fellow Iranian activists a happy new year....Azadi Norooz....actually, as I believe this is the last year of darkness Iran must suffer under this abysmal regime, come hell or high water...war or revolt...in either case the hard work must begin now.

To be most effective Cyrus, one must above all be accurate in disemination of information. Whether you consider what I have to say on this matter as "insult" , I would prefer if you take as simply constructive criticism in a positive manner to strengthen this site's credibility and functionality in the struggle for freedom.

As we all know, there are many ways to interpret things, but in the end the truth is the truth, and time makes it self evident, if the evidence is not redily discernable in the present. One then must not jump to conclusion too quickly, as I find often the case with a great number of people about many things, political and otherwise.

So then, in practical application, when re-publishing reports of the nature I have seen in this one topic thread (and one other regarding your "why" question on Afghanistan) it is advisable to do a little research with objectivity, and perspective to bust the myth of propaganda and dis-information which can be delivered in very subtle ways (as I will point out in the following)

It is very important for the credibility and health of the opposition in general to take great pains not to be party to false reporting by repeat, (or at least note that a source or article may be suspect or biased)

The US has adopted lately a strategy of reaching out more to the Iranian people while pursuing anti-Iranian measures. It uses humanitarian disasters such as these latest quakes to hit the country to convey to the people it has a humanitarian heart in a bid to create a wedge between the people and the government.

In this above, the inaccuracy of the statement is deliberately misleading to tie humanitarian aid to political agenda. It has never been US policy to use humanitarian disaster to "drive a wedge" or advantage itself politically.

I take as example the Tsunami relief efforts, the aid to Pakistan earthquake victims , and the 22% of all UN humanitarian assistance spent that the US contributes annually as prime examples of the altruistic nature of the aid the US provides to those in need through NGO's , international org's , and via the private donations of the American people as well.

If it has any political connotation at all, it results in a better global reputation as a good neighbor lending a hand to those who need the assistance.

There are of course those who would decry cynicly that it is all politicly motivated to illicit the kind of results alluded to herein this news report, but again please consider the source, and its motivation for the statement.

“Today, we successfully tested a new-generation missile capable of striking several targets simultaneously”, Brigadier General Hossein Salami, who commands the IRGC Air Force, told state television on Friday.

The new domestically-produced missile can “hide from radars” and “evade anti-missile missiles”, Salami said.

There are Multiple (plural) examples herein....starting with the picture associated with this article....the photo is of a European Space agency Ariane 5 commercial satilite booster taking off from Guiana, South America...If you don't believe me, just type ESA into your search engine, and take a look at their website. The building exactly matches the launch facility , as does the booster exactly match that of an Ariane 5 rocket.

Aye, now I've heard through some reputable folks that Iran Focus has become sort of an MEK unofficial chearleader, and I've noticed the trend over the past few months myself to give positive reporting to the group which it's only credible act was to expose the regime's nuclear activities back in 2002. Since then, there has been some very iffy information come out of that source, and a lot has since been discredited as politically motivated and just plain false or exagerated.

Like the photo, the IRI has nothing in stock that uses two solid stage boosters and a central liquid propellant engine as illustrated, but attached to the article, the uneducated might redily assume that the IRI has made a great technological leap.

Now to the actual statement...."stealth missile" yes indeed...so stealthy it doesn't exist except in a mullah's wet dream...

Fact is noting the date as the 31st...there was a launch on this date, and here's an interesting little factoid that sheads a lot of light on things...as well as the military excercise going on in the Persian Gulf....oh yes...it has a name by the way....as you will note...and you'll note that the missile in question is a Sahab II , hardly multiple warhead capable nor stealthy....as we tracked it just as easy as you would a 747 taking off from LAX or any other airport.

>
>
> March 31, 2006: Iran starts War Games dubbed "Holy Prophet" in Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman
>
> According to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency, Iran's war games have kicked off despite the three earthquakes earlier today.
>
> The IRNA report follows:
>
> A joint maritime wargame, dubbed as Holy Prophet (PBUH), started here Friday in the Persian Gulf waters.
>
> Combatants from the navy and airforce of the Islamic Republic Army and police, missile units of the air force and Basij (voluntary) forces took part in the joint wargame.
>
> Some 17,000 of combatants have taken part in the wargame, spokesman of the wargame Vice-Rear Admiral Mohammad Ibrahimi Dehghani said on Friday.
>
> Over 1,500 gunboats along with all types of fighters, bombers and choppers have taken part in the wargame, he pointed out.
>
> One unit of Shahab 2 missile is to be launched to resemble peace and friendship among littoral states of the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman, he said.
>
> During the wargame various anti-offensive operations, telecommunications, satellites, reconnaissance patrols and electronic systems are to be conducted against the hypothetical enemies.
>
> The wargame would be concluded on April 6.
>
> --------------------------------------
>
> For more translations and news on terrorism, visit http://www.lauramansfield.com
> or visit our forum at http://www.lauramansfield.com/forum/
>
> Strategic Translations is a service provided by Laura Mansfield through http://www.lauramansfield.com
>
> You may email Laura at laura@lauramansfield.com

What I find most interesting was the reason they stated they launched it...as a friendly gesture....

There's Icing on the spin, for you....

Again, it is up to the opposition to be dead-on accurate, bust the myths as they are spewed out, and call them on it, as well as those who claim to be the opposition if they are engaged in myth making...for while the regime spends gobs of money trying to discredit the opposition in general, nothing works best like putting false info into the west's hands to raise eyebrows and cast doubt on it. It's hard enough getting us to believe accurate intel, I ought to know....

In other words Cyrus, take my dad's advice to heart...."don't believe anything you hear, only half of what you read, believe what you see, and get your eyes checked often."

This applies as well to your publicly expressed doubts about US foreign policy (IE concern for Afghan religious freedom , legal case in question you asked "why is Bush concerned?"

See Cyrus, this get to the rub of why I no longer contribute to this site (excepting this case study in point above as friendly advice).

Point being, the Afghans are a Soverign nation, they chose their constitution themselves, they elected their leadership free and fairly.

Any young democracy is going to be put to its own legal tests of its institutions of freedom, and that is what is going on.

Aye then, when the mullah's are in the dustbin of history and your people have written a new constitution, it will be put to the test as well.
Would you have us dictate it to you? I don't think so....

Of course there is concern Cyrus....we don't put out the human rights report annually on every country on Earth (including Iran) because we are indifferent now do we? And yes we want to see Afghanistan succeeed as a viable democracy, adhearing to the universal declaration of human rights (which as one element incorperated freedom of religious choice and practice).

-------------

Interview on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace

Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Washington, DC
March 26, 2006

(excerpt)

QUESTION: And we're joined now by the Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice.
Secretary Rice, welcome back to Fox News Sunday.

SECRETARY RICE: Thank you. Thank you, Chris. Good to be with you.

QUESTION: Thank you. Let's start with Abdul Rahman, the Afghan who was being
prosecuted for converting to Christianity, as we say. His case apparently was
dropped this morning. What do you know?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I don't have independent confirmation, Chris, of that
news report but I do know that the Afghan Government was working on it, that
they were looking at the judicial case here and that they were working very
hard to try and resolve it in a favorable manner. So I hope that, in fact, this
has been done.

QUESTION: If that is the case, if it is dropped, but not dropped because it's
just wrong to prosecute somebody for exercising freedom of religion but,
rather, because of technical flaws, lack of information, he's mentally
incompetent. Does that end the controversy? Are you satisfied with that
outcome?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I think the question of mental incompetence, as far as I
understand, has not been raised here, that this is really about the case
itself. This is a complicated situation. We have been very clear with the
Afghan Government that the freedom of religion and the freedom of religious
conscience is at the core of democratic development. They have constitutional
expectations and have been written in that they will, in fact, live up to the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights which protects individual conscience on
religion. So I do understand that they need to get through this case.

The fact is, Chris, this is a young democracy. It's a young democracy that now
does have a constitution that is in accordance with the modern age. But of
course, they're going to have difficulties and conflicts. There are going to be
cases that are going to go one way or another. What we have to do is stand with
the Afghans to continue to insist on the principle and to help them work
through some of these contradictions. There's never been a democratic
constitution including ours, by the way, where we didn't have to have struggles
and debates about constitutional interpretation.

QUESTION: So assuming that the reports are right and that the case is dropped
for technical reasons, your reaction is?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, I would hope that, in fact, if that's the case that the
Afghan Government has done that, would be a very good step forward. It would be
a very good step forward. Obviously, there will continue to be discussions in
Afghanistan and between Afghanistan and the international community about the
importance of religious freedom, about importance of adherence to the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. But we have to recognize that this is an
evolutionary process. This isn't the Taliban. We had no constitution to which
to appeal or the people of Afghanistan had no constitution to which to appeal.
So Afghanistan's made a lot of progress in four years and we need to keep that
in mind.

--------(end excerpt)---------

So in my humble opinion, your question "Why" regarding our concern is a rather silly one....it's like asking why did Condi Rice ask for 75 million to support freedom in Iran from Congress....the short answer to both is that it's the right thing to do.

Now I'll be perfectly honest in saying that I think that 75 mill's a drop in the bucket of what's needed, but it's a start. I'll also say that there's no policy made by man or institution that can't be improved upon to better serve the people. That said Cyrus, you are free to criticize my government as you will, but I think only a fool bites the hand that feeds it and lends moral support to the cause of your people's freedom.

And that sir is something you must look into the mirror of your concious about...and gain perspective with....I can only lend you mine for a short time. And time's up.

For two years and more I've been telling folks to pull it together, I've not, nor will I exagerate the stakes involved. I know the troubles you in the opposition have had, but the biggest of all is the lack of trust among yourselves, and that's not something the US nor any other nation can help you with by any kind of aid...dialoge with you included.

These are not just my conclusions alone, but reiterated by a number of opposition leaders and folks in the US government who've had the guts and selflessness to put their own interests aside for the common good.

One last thing, in your agenda of this site as stated...I can tell you this...the Iranian people need neither nuclear power nor nuclear weapons.

An Iran whole free and at peace needs no WMD to make it's security complete first of all, and secondly you've just had another earthquake that to any intelligent Iranian should serve to drive home the fact that a nuclear power plant is a certain environmental disaster in such an earthquake prone nation.

This is not just about Iran's rights either, there's other nations in the region that would be affected if Bushir went "Chernobyl" , and they've already expressed their concern.

I hope those affected by this latest earthquake will find aid and comfort, housing and assistance from those who still have homes standing in other areas...seeing as how the regime isn't apparently willing to provide it out of self-pride to accept a little humanitarian assistance from the international community.

Aye, but would we in the US expect the regime to? It is the people that must expect these things from the regime when it is right minded policy to better serve the people's needs, not our place as America to demand that the regime accept the aid from those it calls its enemy..."Satan", to be wiped off the map like we matter not alive or dead..

One other point....Aid of any kind is offered as a hand up...not a hand out...nor will the US taxpayer tolerate it being diverted.

You in the opposition will hopefully prove worthy of the investment asked for from us, so that at some future point our peoples may say that frendship and solidarity was cemented in the road to freedom, not by cash, but by good thoughts good words and good deeds, even if the words are bluntly honest as these. Some day you may thank me for them.

It took us a long time to get there (our own freedom and civil liberties), so be not impatient nor go about it half-assesed eh? I'm not here again to shame folks into revolt, but piecemeal protests won't do. 2 million on the street, no less...and no excuses to us...make them to the Iranian people if you can't.
You have had my effective support, as well as my government's and there's no whining allowed to those who are true revolutionaries....as the NIKE comercial said..."just do it".

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran announced its second major new missile test within days, saying Sunday it has successfully fired a high-speed underwater missile capable of destroying huge warships and submarines.

The tests came during war games that Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards have been holding in the Gulf and the Arabian Sea since Friday at a time of increased tensions with the United States over Tehran's nuclear program.

The Iranian-made underwater missile has a speed of 223 miles per hour, said Gen. Ali Fadavi, deputy head of the Revolutionary Guards' Navy.

That would make it about three or four times faster than a torpedo and as fast as the world's fastest known underwater missile, the Russian-made VA-111 Shkval, developed in 1995. It was not immediately known if the Iranian missile, which has not yet been named, was based on the Shkval.

"It has a very powerful warhead designed to hit big submarines. Even if enemy warship sensors identify the missile, no warship can escape from this missile because of its high speed," Fadavi told state-run television.

It was not immediately clear whether the ship-fired missile can carry a nuclear warhead.

The new weapon could raise concerns over Iran's naval power in the Gulf, where during the war with Iraq in the 1980s Iranian forces attacked oil tankers from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, prompting a massive U.S. naval operation to protect them. The U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet is based on the tiny Arab island nation of Bahrain in the Gulf.

Cmdr. Jeff Breslau of the 5th Fleet said no special measures were taken by U.S. forces based on Bahrain in reaction to the Iranian war games, even after the latest missile test.

"They can conduct excercises whenever they want and they frequently do, just as we do. We conduct excercises throughout this region," he told The Associated Press by telephone.

On Friday, the first day of the war games, Iran test-fired the Fajr-3 missile, which can avoid radars and hit several targets simultaneously using multiple warheads. The Guards said the test was successful.

More than 17,000 Revolutionary Guards forces are taking part in the weeklong maneuvers. On Sunday, paratroops practiced a drop in an attack on a mock enemy position, and warships, jet fighters, helicopters and sophisticated electronic equipment were used in other exercises.

Iran, which views the United States as an arch foe and is concerned about the U.S. military presence in neighboring Iraq and Afghanistan, says the maneuvers aim to develop the Guards' defensive capabilities.

Iran has routinely held war games over the past two decades to improve its combat readiness and test locally made equipment such as missiles, tanks and armored personnel carriers.

The missile tests and war games coincide with increasing tension between Iran and the West over Tehran's controversial nuclear program.

The United States and its allies believe Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons, but Tehran denies that, saying its program is for generating electricity.

The U.N. Security Council is demanding that Iran halt its uranium enrichment activities. But an Iranian envoy said its activities are "not reversible."

Iran launched an arms development program during its 1980-88 war with Iraq to compensate for a U.S. weapons embargo. Since 1992, Iran has produced its own tanks, armored personnel carriers, missiles and a fighter plane.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

-------------------

Comment: In a mullah's wet dream indeed....wonder if CNN based it's info from the official IRI release, same as Iran Focus....seems like....and it wouldn't suprise anyone if the Russians have sold a few bathtub toys to add to the mullah's rubber duckies.

But I would venture a guess that countermeasures have been found over the decade since the Russians developed their underwater missile..

As for what would most likely classify as a cruise missile (avoiding radar) They may have just tested one of the ones smuggled out of Georgia. If the claim is confirmed that is....and it hasn't been.

In any case, given the earthquake and the human suffering caused, a total waste of manpower that could otherwise have gone to helping those in need, rather than trying to impress the US Navy....which I don't think is all that worried about some possibly interesting but outdated hardware.

Fact is, there's probably more conventional punch in one modern US guided missile destroyer than in the total Iranian Navy combined....never mind the US nuclear capability....deliverable by any number of methods.

In the interests of peace though, I would suggest the Iranian people tell this regime to put a sock in it before they go and do something really stupid like miscalculate the odds, thinking they can actually go head to head with the US and survive, or "accidentally" PUSH THE WRONG BUTTON.

Again, I ask if there's a sane Iranian that doesn't at this point regard this regime as more of a threat to your own peace and security than any liver-lipped conspiracy that may have ever been dreamed up by the Brits , in some Iranian's wildest nightmare of colonial hegemony.....

C'mon now....let's get real....if this regime hasn't presented you'all with the catalyst for change that would motivate the masses by now out of shear survival instinct, what will it take? A Mushroom cloud over Nantez that the regime fired off itself to try and make it look like the west just declared war via preemptive nuclear strike?

Be a little late then, if you know what I mean....

I swear, the regime can recruit 50,000 martyrs via newspaper adds, but the opposition can't muster that on the street on any given day of the week, anywhere in Iran.

This makes me wonder if the IRI parallel to NAZI Germany doesn't have another dimention, that of the Jews just hunkering down in their homes, scared to paralysis waiting to be carted off to concentration camps without a wimper of resistance....

A harsh, but truthfull and direct comparison.....but at least you have history to learn from before it is too late.

The bully on the block will control your life until someone gets up the nerve to shove his face in the mud and prove to all that he's not worthy of your fear......this is your test....fear is the mind killer, loose that and all things are possible. The alternative is paralysis and death for a noble society that once was, and may be again if you act now.

Just my blunt but humble American opinion. We've been known to do a real number on bullies and tyrants on occasion, but I think you folks need to do this on your own and regain your lost pride....but it only takes one to start a war....and therin lies your dilema...you don't have time to chit chat about it.....nor do I.

Tehran, Iran, Apr. 03 – Iran’s security forces have arrested a number of earthquake victims who protested government inaction in providing aid to the earthquake-stricken province of Lorestan, western Iran.

Desperation and despair turned to anger and unrest as the distraught survivors frustrated at government inaction in helping the needy charged at government centres.

In the early hours of Friday several powerful earthquakes and at least 40 aftershocks turned people’s homes and towns into dust and rubble. The first tremors came late Thursday. Though not as strong as the 6.0 quake that hit in the middle of the night, the tremors still prompted many people to sleep outdoors. At least 90 people were confirmed dead, a figure that could have been much steeper had the early warning sign from Thursday’s smaller tremor not alerted the locals.

In Boroujerd, one of the worst hit cities, enraged citizens protested outside a government aid centre, saying that they had not been given tents for shelter, medical supplies, or drinkable water.

“A number of trouble-makers and opportunists have been arrested in the earthquake-stricken regions”, Mehdi Hashemi, a senior official in Iran’s Interior Ministry, announced late Saturday after a meeting with provincial aid officials.

Hashemi said that agents of Iran’s State Security Forces (SSF), armed forces, the Bassij, and the Revolutionary Guards were being deployed to the province to “maintain national security”.

On Sunday, agents of the SSF opened fire on anti-government demonstrators in Boroujerd, injuring several people in Jaafari-Gani Street and Shahdad Street, locals who had managed to flee to a nearby town said.

The SSF commander dispatched to Boroujerd, Shir-Khoda Moradi, and other agents have been patrolling the streets in police vehicles fitted with loudspeakers and threatening the local population that they will be fired upon if they join the demonstrators.

Wanted to wish you and fellow Iranian activists a happy new year....Azadi Norooz....actually, as I believe this is the last year of darkness Iran must suffer under this abysmal regime, come hell or high water...war or revolt...in either case the hard work must begin now.

Take care,

Eric Jette AKA (Oppenheimer)

Dear Oppenheimer,

Thank you for Norouz (new year) message, as you have stated hope we finally see regime change in Iran this year. And also I wish this Islamist regime in Iran is replaced with Free Society and Secular Democracy.
I will respond to your other comments soon. Naturally like always I agree with some of your comments, ideas and disagree with few . I am sure you don’t expect we should agree on everything.

Several units of the Islamic regime's Para-military forces
have been sent to the Lorestan province in order to help to
control the earthquake stricken region. Sporadic clashes
have erupted between some angry survivors and local
security forces following the lack of necessary materials
and aids in the region.

Most residents are openly expressing their anger about the
looting of Iran's national assets, by the Islamic regime's
officials, and the aids delivered to terrorist groups, such
as, Hamas. The anger reached its boiling point, on Saturday
afternoon, following the spread of the news that the
Islamic republic regime has officially rejected the US
offer for sending help.

Iranians are in general rejecting the Islamic regime for
its ideological basis and its inhumane policy to let their
countrymen die instead of welcoming any measure seeking to
save them. Many remember of how the International aid was
detourned, each time, and sold on the black market
following the deadly earthquakes that happened, in the last
two decades, in Roodbar and Bam regions.

Several strong consecutive earthquakes stroke the Bojnoord
and Dorood areas, located in the western province of
Lorestan, on Friday morning. Official sources have issued
reports stating about tens of deaths, hundreds of injured
and thousands of homeless which according to some experts
are far from reality.

We Can Pay $117,334.00 To Each Of 15000 Earthquake Homless Families
If We Can Take Back The Stolen Money From Just 4 Little Ayatollahs

Quote:

Who pays for the Hezbollah’s Rockets and missiles?
The Iranian people do!

Since the begging of the hostilities, Hezbollah has fired over 1500 rockets toward Israel !
The poor Iranian workers are paying for it !
Where is their share of oil money that Khomeini promised?

blank wrote:

Earthquake survivors beaten by security forces

SMCCDI (Information Service)
April 1, 2006

Several units of the Islamic regime's Para-military forces
have been sent to the Lorestan province in order to help to
control the earthquake stricken region. Sporadic clashes
have erupted between some angry survivors and local
security forces following the lack of necessary materials
and aids in the region.

Most residents are openly expressing their anger about the
looting of Iran's national assets, by the Islamic regime's
officials, and the aids delivered to terrorist groups, such
as, Hamas. The anger reached its boiling point, on Saturday
afternoon, following the spread of the news that the
Islamic republic regime has officially rejected the US
offer for sending help.

Iranians are in general rejecting the Islamic regime for
its ideological basis and its inhumane policy to let their
countrymen die instead of welcoming any measure seeking to
save them. Many remember of how the International aid was
detourned, each time, and sold on the black market
following the deadly earthquakes that happened, in the last
two decades, in Roodbar and Bam regions.

Several strong consecutive earthquakes stroke the Bojnoord
and Dorood areas, located in the western province of
Lorestan, on Friday morning. Official sources have issued
reports stating about tens of deaths, hundreds of injured
and thousands of homeless which according to some experts
are far from reality.

At sixth place is Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, the equivalent of $330 million.

At fifth place is Iraqi-born Ayatollah Mohammad-Ali Taskhiri, the equivalent of $330 million.

Number four in Iran’s rich list is Ayatollah Ali Meshkini, the equivalent of $330 million.

Number two on the list of officials who have become notoriously rich is Ayatollah Vaez Tabasi, known widely as the Sultan of Khorassan. Vaez Tabasi and his children have amassed an estimated fortune of seven trillion Rials, or $770 million.
.

According to the above reliable sources if we add the stolen assets of Iranian people in past 27 years by just 4 Ayatollahs add them together and divide it by 15,000 families earthquake victim we come up with the following result :
Ayatollah Vaez Tabasi $770,000,000.00 +
Ayatollah Ali Meshkini $330,000.000.00 +
Ayatollah Mohammad-Ali Taskhiri $330,000.000.00 +
Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi $330,000.000.00
____________________________________________________
Total Stolen Money By Just 4 Ayatollahs $1,760,000,000.00

If we divide the above total by 15,000 Families who lost their home between 40% to 100% during recent earthquake
$1,760,000,000.00 / 15,000 = $117,334.00

Simple Solution For Islamist Regime to Consider:
If the Islamist regime take the stolen money from just 4 Ayatollahs then they can pay $117,334.00 to each family to repair or build new home and farm ….

Please Help Me ....
Would You Fight For Me?
Where Is My Share Of Oil Money ?
Who Has Stolen My Share Of Oil Money ?

Innocent victim : An Iranian girl is pictured outside her family's destroyed home in Khaleq Ali village, near the city of Brujerd, following the 6.0 earthquake that killed at least 70 people. (AFP/Atta Kenare)

An Iranian girl stands in front of her destroyed family home in Khaleq Ali village, near the city of Brujerd, following yesterday's powerful earthquake. Iranian authorities were battling to provide shelter and aid for thousands of people left homeless by a 6.0 magnitude earthquake in the west of the country that killed 70 people.(AFP/Atta Kenare)

Last edited by cyrus on Sat Jul 19, 2008 5:27 pm; edited 6 times in total

Whether we agree or not is irelevent to the fact that the regime's message to it's people can be summed up in total by the words of Mohamed Atta to passengers just before he imbedded a jet into the World Trade Center.

"Remain quiet, and you'll be OK."

I hope this will be reflected upon by the people inside Iran, not just those striving for their freedom from outside as those on forums like this one have been.